The present invention relates to a disk device such as a floppy disk device, and more particularly to a disk device having a cassette holder adapted to be reciprocated.
Examples of a floppy disk device are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,065 and U.S. Pat. application Set. No. 641,778. filed Jan. 16, 1991, now abandoned.
In such a conventional floppy disk device, a slide plate having a substantially U-shaped cross section is mounted inside a chassis having a substantially U-shaped cross section in such a manner that a bottom plate and a pair of side plates of the slide plate overlap a bottom plate and a pair of side plates of the chassis, respectively. A pair of side plates of a cassette holder are provided with first four guided portions, and the pair of side plates of the slide plate are provided with four inclined guides as inclined grooves. The first four guided portions of the cassette holder are engaged with the four inclined guides of the slide plate, respectively. The pair of side plates of the cassette holder are further provided with second two guided portions, and the pair of side plates of the slide plate are further provided with two vertical guides as vertical grooves. The second two guided portions of the cassette holder are engaged with the two vertical guides of the slide plate, respectively. The slide plate is biased return spring as biasing means in a direction counter to a cassette insert direction. A trigger lever is provided to lock the slide plate in a cassette insert position. An eject button as an eject operating portion is provided at one end of the slide plate on the side of insertion of a disk cassette. A spindle motor for driving the disk cassette is mounted on the bottom plate of the chassis.
In loading the disk cassette into the floppy disk device, the disk cassette is horizontally inserted into the cassette holder locked in the cassette insert position, and the locked condition of the slide plate by the trigger lever is released by the disk cassette inserted.
As a result, the slide plate is slid by the return spring in the direction counter to the cassette insert direction. Accordingly, the first four guided portions of the cassette holder are guided to be urged downwardly by the four inclined guides of the slide plate, and the second two guided portions of the cassette holder are guided by the two vertical guides of the slide plate. In this way, the cassette holder is vertically lowered to a cassette load position, and the disk cassette in the cassette holder is horizontally mounted to a spindle of the spindle motor located in the cassette load position.
In general, such a floppy disk device is provided with a damper for decelerating a moving (lowering) speed of the cassette holder to damp a shock of movement of the cassette holder by the return spring. Accordingly, the cassette holder is moved forth slowly and safely from the cassette insert position to the cassette load position.
In ejecting the disk cassette from the floppy disk device, the eject button is depressed by an operator's finger to slide the slide plate in the cassette insert direction against the return spring. As a result, the cassette holder is vertically raised to be returned to the cassette insert position in the reverse manner, and the slide plate is locked again by the trigger lever. After the cassette holder is returned to the cassette insert position, the disk cassette is automatically ejected from the cassette insert opening of the front panel.
However, the conventional floppy disk device has the following problems.
Firstly, as mentioned above, the slide plate having a substantially U-shaped cross section is slidably mounted inside the chassis having a substantially U-shaped cross section, and the cassette holder is vertically reciprocated by sliding the slide plate. Accordingly, as a first problem, the number of parts and the weight of the floppy disk device are increased, and the assembling of the floppy disk device is troublesome to increase a cost. Furthermore, the thickness of the slide plate causes an increase in thickness and width of the floppy disk device as a whole.
Secondly, the spindle motor is mounted on the bottom plate of the chassis, and a motor substrate for mounting thereon drive circuit parts for the spindle motor is mounted under the bottom plate. Accordingly, as a second problem, the thickness of the floppy disk device as a whole is increased.
Thirdly, since a vertical displacement of the cassette holder from the cassette insert position to the cassette load position is small, the slide plate adapted to be horizontally moved with a stroke larger than the vertical displacement of the cassette holder is employed to rotationally drive the damper. Accordingly, as a third problem, the slide plate is an essential part as a rotational driving part for the damper.
Fourthly, since the eject button is provided at one end of the slide plate on the side of insertion of the disk cassette, the eject button projects frontwardly from a position under the cassette insert opening of the front panel. Accordingly, as a fourth problem, when the eject button is depressed by an operator's finger to eject the disk cassette, there is a possibility that the cassette insert opening of the front panel is partially closed by the operator's finger. This possibility causes that the disk cassette to be ejected from the cassette insert opening of the front panel with a slight time lag after the depression of the eject button by the finger is apt to interfere with the finger, which may incur the displeasure of the operator.